Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very regrettable.

Senator O'Keeffe also raised the question of requesting the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine to come into the House. As the House knows, he is meeting his fellow Ministers in Brussels as we speak. I agree totally with the Senator that the labelling situation, which we have discussed in this House, needs to be discussed again. We have wonderful traceability in this country but that needs to be extended throughout Europe. I note the Senator's points and we will try to arrange for the Minister to come to the House as soon as he can do so.

On this day, Ash Wednesday, I note her points regarding smoking. Hopefully, we will have a debate on the Seanad public consultation report soon. It is an excellent report and it has been recognised as such by all the people involved in it, especially the director of cancer services nationally and quite a number of organisations. It is imperative that we would have a debate on it in early course.

I note the point made by Senator Norris. He mentioned that gay people are again becoming the punch bag for conservative forces. I can assure him that the Government will certainly be no part of those conservative forces-----